Ivybridge Town run out comfortable St Luke's Challenge Cup victors

IVYBRIDGE Town bounced back in style to end a run of four successive defeats with a convincing 7-0 home win over Okehampton Argyle in the preliminary round of the Devon County St Luke’s Cup at Erme Valley on Wednesday evening (Sept 23), writes Graham Hambly.

A promising start saw Ivybridge take an early lead when Colin Pritchard opened the scoring in the 12th minute with a clinical finish after an excellent run on the left by full back Jake Lane.

Then came two goals in quick succession from Alfie Slough and Kaycee Ogwu in the 18th and 20th minutes to give Ivybridge a comfortable 3-0 interval lead.

Another quick-fire salvo followed early in the second half with Pritchard grabbing his second goal of the game in the 55th minute followed by another from Josh Pope two minutes later.

Meanwhile, Ogwu continued to torment the visitors with some dazzling runs and he created the opening for skipper James Forrest to make it 6-0 in the 75th minute.

Striker Josh Johnson made a welcome return from injury when he came on as a substitute and he completed the scoring with his fifth goal of the season in the 80th minute after good work by fellow substitute Mason Elliott.

Despite the impressive margin of the Ivybridge victory, they could easily have increased their goal tally but for a number of fine saves by Okehampton goalkeeper and captain Jack Arthur, who had an outstanding game for the visitors.

Ivybridge joint managers Ben Washam and Brad Gargett were delighted with the ruthlessness shown by their attacking players.

Pritchard, Slough and Ogwu, who started the game, were all on target while Johnson, Chris Harvey and Owen Howard made useful contributions after coming on as second half substitutes.

Gargett said: “We started well and the side is looking more complete with boys coming back from injury. It was good to keep a clean sheet and get seven goals with attackers scoring.

“I liked the ruthlessness from our front six with the three who started and three off the bench. We have been crying out for that bit of ruthlessness.”

There was special praise for Ogwu, who was involved in five of the goals, scoring one plus four assists.

Ivybridge now return to league action with a couple of tough home matches coming up. They face Portishead Town on Saturday (Sept 26) followed by the visit of Clevedon Town a week later, on Saturday October 3.

Portishead beat Ivybridge 4-0 on the opening day of the season and Clevedon are currently second in the table with seven wins in their nine league matches.

Washam admitted: “Saturday will be a tough one, but we are more than capable of taking points off anyone. Everyone in the league is beatable and we have got to make sure that we are ready for it otherwise you get punished.

“Our win over Okehampton will give us confidence going into Saturday. If teams come down here thinking it is going to be an easy game, they are in for a shock.”

Ivybridge will be keen to take advantage of their coming home matches because the end of October and start of November sees them facing a run of six successive away fixtures with no home games from October 10 until November 14.